Writing+Analysis

__**Writing Assessment**__ Analyzing children’s writing is a crucial part of tracking their progress in literary throughout a single year and/ or their entire academic careers. Writing samples sever as precise documentation of what the child is thinking, but also what they have learned or are learning in writing instruction. The best place to explore writing with children is during writer’s workshop. “Writers workshop is the place for children to have time for writing. We want them to have time to think through their ideas and transfer them onto paper” (Chen, 116). Students should be given the opportunities to express their thoughts in a variety of forms of writing. One of the most beneficial types of writing children participate in is process writing, when I child creates many drafts of one piece and publishes it. “Process writing demonstrates the importance of developing an idea and understanding that writing in not a linear process” (Chen, 117). Also, writing in a variety of genres helps students see how the purpose for writing influences the syntax and discourse of the work. When assessing students writing, educators are looking for two main influences on the students work: content and mechanics. Teachers study students writing in hopes to identify a developed thought throughout a cohesive beginning middle and end, dialoguing and descriptions. Also, in students writing, educators check to see what literary devices students have applied from minilessons including grammar, figurative language, tone, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, etc. Jim is an entertaining and creative third grade student from Mrs. Weaver’s class. He is proud of his humorous and satirical writing as he often shares with the class entries from his jot notebook. The jot notebook is a place where children are to write everyday and usually about anything they wish. His creative thinking and energetic personality translate onto paper through is writing and are then celebrated with the class. Even with a given prompt, Jim is still inventive in his literary devices, language, and tone of writing. He is a bright young writer who has mastered several writing skills. I chose to assess Jim on a writing sample from his NJASK practice writing prompt on Tuesday, April 12, 2011. The prompt was to write about something that the student really wanted but was unable to receive. The writing was completed on April 5, 2011 and the students were supplied twenty minutes to do so. The methodology to assessing students writing was provided by Dr. McKool, as well as other textual references. Dr. McKool’s instruction on assessing writing addresses two main components: content and mechanics. When analyzing a student’s writing, one should measure how well the child is conveying their thoughts and ideas. If the students are writing from a prompt, then one would measure how well the child is writing on task. More so, educators should look for a beginning, middle, and ending, dialogue, descriptions, and uses of figurative language. These components make up concise and complete content in written works. Mechanics are also important to assess in a child’s writing sample. Content is important but only when others are able to read it and proper mechanics makes this possible. Teachers should be aware of accurate and a variety of punctuation, capitalization, spelling, and grammar. When analyzing student’s grammar in particularly, teachers should look for compound complex sentences, word choices, and proper tenses throughout. Analyzing students writing can be a tedious task, but not when one knows to assess for clear content and proper mechanics suited to the child’s grade level. A great deal of information concerning Jim’s writing development was extracted from his NJASK writing sample. To begin, his context was clear and well communicated. By beginning with “I really want that. No I really want that. Or best of all I want…” grabbed my attention through the ellipses, making me want to know what he really wanted. This was a wonderful use of effective and varietal punctuation usage. More so, from this introduction by repeating all the ‘I wants’; I was able to identify the purpose for writing which was to tell about something the author really wanted. He developed that prompt throughout by describing how poorly he physically felt without his “stupendous wish” and then gave the reader a reason for the coughing he wanted to go away; it was due to “… Seasonal Allergies!” He composed focused on one desire but was able to expand the idea by stating reasons for wanting his coughing to go away (because he felt so physically ill because of it), why he coughs (because of seasonal allergies), and a possible opportunity to having his wish fulfilled ( by going to the doctors). These are supporting ideas assisted in his construction of a beginning, middle and end. He begins by revealing his want to readers, his middle consists of why he wants this particular wish, and ends with a possible way to achieve it. He uses descriptive vocabulary including stupendous to emphasize the importance of his wish and the word drowsy rather than a generic ‘tired’. His tone is strong as I can hear him reading this and captivating the reader with, upper level vocabulary, descriptive words, and a variety of punctuation to express greater meaning than the message itself. As strong as the works content is, it is incomplete which in a normal circumstance would have no detrimental effect on the student as they would be supplied more time to complete the piece. However, the assignment was timed so clearly his writing pace is slow but still very strong in the little that he does write.
 * Purpose of Assessment**
 * Introduction of child and setting**
 * Methodology**
 * Descriptions of findings**

His mechanics were not as strong as his content, but was executed to his best ability. One of my greatest concerns with his mechanics is his use of punctuation. While he uses a variety of it and in unique situations, he fails to understand the usage and meaning of a particular type: commas. He failed to use any at all but clearly needs then throughout this piece due to his sentence structure. Also, his spelling needs some refining. He is in the transitional spelling stage spelling words such as realize and stupendous merely one letter off of similar sound to the correct one. Furthermore, the fact that he misspells these words wrong anyway is not a great surprise as they are words beyond a third graders word mastery. Thus I applaud him on taking risk on his word choices. Finally, his grammar needs improvement especially in sentence structure. He uses several run ons, repeats the same transitions and sentences are not varied when the majority of them begin with “I”. Based on the findings in Jim’s writing sample, I have concluded that Jim is ready to be introduced to the purpose and usages of commas as well as a review in sentence structures and punctuation. Jim’s writes with several breaks and with many thoughts at once. Thus he must employ the use of commas to separate ideas and for more fluent writing overall. To help him convey his message clearly and cohesively through proper punctuation, specifically commas, I would supply explicit instruction in teaching them to him. Commas are an essential element in segmenting linguistic units. “Segmentation is achieved through such devices as spaces, line breaks, commas and periods” (Owocki & Goodman, 85). Hence, I would begin with a review of segmented punctuations, comparing the comma to line breaks, and periods so that Jim understands the function of a comma. I may also present to him texts with more commas or encourage him when he reads independently to be aware of how the author utilizes commas in his/ her writing. “Knowledge of punctuation and orthography develops as children observe their uses in various kinds of texts, intuit the need to include them in their writing, and explore ways of incorporating them into their writing” (Owocki & Goodman, 86). While introducing Jim to the purpose of punctuation and its functions in various situations as the foundation, I would follow up with and finish these lessons on the moments when to utilize commas and have him practice this through series of worksheets and in class whole group and individual correcting/ comma placing activities.
 * How to use these findings**

Jim’s lack of commas contribute to his run on sentences and poor sentence structure which alters the content of the writing to be less effective than it really is. To combat his punctuation and sentence structure problems other than by introducing him to commas, I feel that it would be beneficial to review with him the proper usages for certain punctuations and how to correct run on sentences to be either compound or complex by exploring a variety of both into his writing. To review punctuation, I would begin with a minilesson that is student directed by asking them to tell me of all the types of punctuation they know about, the purpose, and then they are used. Following this I would present students with worksheets or other activities that would require them to insert punctuation into the correct locations in a sentence. More specifically, I may use the packet I created for station two of my punctuation lesson because the first two pages reviewed the types of punctuation and the other sheets required students to apply that knowledge to punctuating sentences. I would also want student to participate in my fifth station because it required another writing sample, but this time, attention was on proper punctuation more than content and other mechanics. I may modify it so that Jim would be able to write using more than one type of punctuation, but still attention would be then on the accuracy of how well they used punctuation in their writing.

For the review on sentence structure, I would start with comparing run on sentences to sentences that are well punctuated and ask students the differences and similarities between the two. Hope fully, Jim will be able to identify that the run on sentence lacks meaning, fluency, and understanding due to its minimal to no punctuation, conjunctions, etc. I would then explore with Jim compound and complex sentences and how to turn run ons into one or the other. With compound sentence I would review with students the meaning and uses of conjunctions while with complex sentence, I would employ the same methods used in punctuation instruction for a minilesson on creating complex sentences from run ons. One method I may use to convey this lesson is through having Jim edit and revise his work alone and with a partner. “You can use texts created during…writing… to show students particular revision and editing strategies. This can also include process lessons on how to talk with a partner about your writing” (Chen, 123). Peer editing would be beneficial as Jim’s peers will point out run on sentences and together they can formulate compound or complex sentences to correct the run on. Peer editing is also effective in establishing a community classroom and its operation of positive and constructive feedback can be used as a minilesson.

Overall, Jim’s writing is appropriate for his age level and certainly a delight to read. He develops content fully and addresses the prompt while composing on task throughout. Despite some mechanical errors, Jim’s only real problems lie in understanding specific types of punctuations and refining his sentence structures and generic types of punctuation. With more instruction, practice, and exposure in whole and small group, Jim is well on his way to conveying his content so that all may comprehend and enjoy.